A variety of techniques are currently in use for permitting passage across sand, swamps, water, thin ice, snow, or other areas where the terrain is of unfirm or hazardous nature. A well-known approach is to place steel or aluminum interlocking planks over the soft terrain to distribute the bearing pressure over a wide area and thereby allow the traverse of men and equipment. Bridging water usually calls for innerconnecting sections of a pontoon bridge and pushing them out across the water obstacle. Both of these approaches present a formidable logistical effort and are time consuming. In a situation where the bridging crews are exposed to hostile fire, the necessary exposure of personnel often results in unacceptable casualties. Assault groups cannot take the time nor have the logistics capability in a rapidly moving combat operation. There is a continuing need in the state of the art for a rapidly erectable, lightweight device for allowing the transport of men and equipment across water, swamps, thin ice or similar natural obstacles. In a more friendly atmosphere there is also a continuing need for a rapidly deployable roadway permitting the off-loading of cargo across an irregular surface such as a dock or a sandy soft beach which does not itself create a formidable logistics problem.